CREATED BY JESS FRIEDMAN 2013

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The Navaho song that inspired me to chant on my song “Where Did You Powow Last Night.” Happens to be a female song, how fitting. From the album of, “Music of the American Indian Navaho From The Archive Of Folk Culture Recorded and Edited by Willard Rhodes.

The cd came with a booklet pictured in the video with descriptions of the songs. Here is the description of the song that inspired me. It is called simply “Women’s Song” (B1):

In most Indian societies the making of music is prerogative of the men, but this does prevent the women from singing along with the men in social songs. The first four songs on side B of this recording are sung solely by women for their own pleasure and enjoyment. “Women’s Song,” the first such selection, names a school by a mountain which the singer cannot forget. It is with longing for the school that she walks about in her lonesomeness. The singers say the tune is old and was sung before going on a raid. Crazy Woman, leader of the raid on Oraibi, and the first woman raid leader, is reported to have sung this song. The leader of the group said the original words of the song were “the canyon belongs to the one who has it.” The song is in Circle Dance style as defined by McAllester in his monograph, ‘Enemy Way Music.’

-I simply liked the melody and that women were singing it. The song I chanted on is below.